News & Events

Christina Greer is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, Lincoln Center (Manhattan) campus. Her research and teaching focus on American politics, Black ethnic politics, campaigns and elections, and public opinion. She is the author of Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream and co-editor of Black Politics in Transition: Immigration, Suburbanization, and Gentrification.

Greer writes a weekly column for The Amsterdam News, one of the oldest Black newspapers in the U.S., and is a frequent political commentator on several media outlets, primarily MSNBC, WNYC, and NY1. She is the co-host of the New York centered podcast FAQ-NYC, is a political analyst at thegrio.com and host of the podcast quiz show The Blackest Questions at thegrio.com.

Greer is a member of the boards of The Tenement Museum in NYC, The Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT, and Community Change in Washington, DC, and serves on the Advisory Board at Tufts University. She received her BA in Political Science from Tufts University and her MA, MPhil, and PhD in Political Science from Columbia University.

Project

As a Moynihan Public Scholar, Dr. Greer will work on a comprehensive history of African American electoral leadership in New York City and New York State. The confluence of racial and Black ethnic diversity, unique borough politics, and coalition building in the economic center of the nation make New York a critical arena of study. Greer argues that while Chicago is rightly understood as the nucleus for national Black politics, public servants from New York—and elected officials, in particular—serve as canaries in the coal mine for African American political development.

Laurence Pevsner is the Director of Speechwriting for Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and a member of President Biden’s cabinet. As part of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Executive Office, Pevsner advises the Ambassador on messaging and policy and oversees everything in her voice, including over 250 speeches each year.

Previously, Pevsner was a Director at West Wing Writers, a speechwriting and strategy firm. He counseled CEOs, union leaders, foundation heads, and officials at all levels of government on strategic messaging, and amplified their ideas everywhere from The New York Times to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to the White House. During the 2020 election, Pevsner served in the Biden-Harris campaign’s writers room, scripting TV ads for the largest political paid media operation in history.

Pevsner is a member of Speechwriters of Color and Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen initiative, and a recipient of the State Department’s Meritorious Honor Award. He received his BA in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst College, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Project

As a Moynihan Public Scholar, Pevsner will draw on his career as a speechwriter and strategic communications advisor, as well as from case studies across history, religion, literature, cinema, and pop culture, to investigate and elucidate the efficacy and importance of apologies, both public and private. Through a series of essays culminating in a book project, he will explore how apologies shape our politics and our lives—from “cancel culture” to national reconciliation—and make the case for why the world needs to get better at saying sorry. He is also writing a novel that complements these themes by exploring the difficulty of apologizing for the sins we inherit.

Yascha Mounk is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Known for his work on the crisis of democracy and the defense of philosophically liberal values, he is a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Founder of Persuasion, and a Publisher at Die Zeit. He is the host of The Good Fight podcast and the author of four books: Stranger in My Own Country: A Jewish Family in Modern Germany; The Age of Responsibility: Luck, Choice, and the Welfare State; The People versus Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It; and most recently, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.

Mounk received his BA in History from Trinity College Cambridge and his PhD in Government from Harvard University.

Project

As a Moynihan Public Scholar, Dr. Mounk will develop a left-liberal critique of the identitarian turn in Western liberal democracies. The “identity synthesis” treats groups defined by their ethnic, religious, or sexual identity as the very building blocks of modern states. And while its origins are found in justifiable disgust with historic and ongoing discrimination and bigotry, the reification of identity runs the risk of creating a deeply fragmented society in which ascriptive identities severely constrain political alternatives. Instead of helping to defuse the rise of the far-right, Mounk argues, the identity synthesis may fuel it.

Laurence Pevsner is the Director of Speechwriting for Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and a member of President Biden’s cabinet. As part of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Executive Office, Pevsner advises the Ambassador on messaging and policy and oversees everything in her voice, including over 250 speeches each year.

Previously, Pevsner was a Director at West Wing Writers, a speechwriting and strategy firm. He counseled CEOs, union leaders, foundation heads, and officials at all levels of government on strategic messaging, and amplified their ideas everywhere from The New York Times to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to the White House. During the 2020 election, Pevsner served in the Biden-Harris campaign’s writers room, scripting TV ads for the largest political paid media operation in history.

Pevsner is a member of Speechwriters of Color and Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen initiative, and a recipient of the State Department’s Meritorious Honor Award. He received his BA in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst College, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Project

As a Moynihan Public Scholar, Pevsner will draw on his career as a speechwriter and strategic communications advisor, as well as from case studies across history, religion, literature, cinema, and pop culture, to investigate and elucidate the efficacy and importance of apologies, both public and private. Through a series of essays culminating in a book project, he will explore how apologies shape our politics and our lives—from “cancel culture” to national reconciliation—and make the case for why the world needs to get better at saying sorry. He is also writing a novel that complements these themes by exploring the difficulty of apologizing for the sins we inherit.